Since finishing the production placement with SharpFutures back in March, I’ve been assigned to various running opportunities via the POD booking service. From internal events at The Sharp Project, along with around 2 months of part time work for the in-house rental company – Pro Motion, I’d say its been a great step in the right direction, not only helping me to build up some valuable experience, but also to connect with and meet new contacts on an day-to-day basis.

My time at Pro-Motion, was spent as a Kit Room Assistant / Driver and daily responsibilities included testing, delivering and collecting equipment from a variety of different places.

Alain and Jess run a tight ship managing the office, dealing with bookings and co-ordinating operations, whilst Reese deals with the technical side of things, repairing, testing and checking over the equipment. I, on the other hand would spend plenty of time driving the crew van to various drop-offs and collections.

Speaking of equipment, when I was based in the office in-between deliveries, it was a great opportunity to learn more about their inventory of cameras, lighting and rigging systems. Every question that I had was the perfect opportunity to build on the little knowledge I had around the technicalities of broadcast-standard equipment. From how to correctly assemble and pack down a slider system, ‘flash’ lights when they came back from a shoot, all of the different shapes and sizes that batteries come in, and why you might side towards choosing a Red Epic Dragon for crisp image quality over an ARRI ALEXA Mini for perfect colour manuverability, it was all meaningful information worthy of soaking up.

One of my final days working for Pro-Motion, was as a Runner on a commercial produced by one of their clients whom was commissioned by Disney. When I found out that it was for the latest instalment of the ‘Finding Nemo’ series – ‘Finding Dory’ I was immediately thrilled to be working on it. The client was producing the campaign, with Olympic gold medallist – Rebecca Adlington on set presenting various pieces to camera, and we were filming down at the Manchester Aquatics Centre. It was such a warm day, and it didn’t help that all of our kit was based right next to the boiler room that heated the swimming pools. I was in charge of buying props, looking after the cast and crew along with even stepping in to do a bit of reflecting when one of the outdoor segments was being filmed.

When working as a Runner, every day is different to the last and you’re sure to be constantly learning and getting involved. Since my time with Pro-Motion, I’ve been running on the BBC1 show – ‘Money For Nothing’, a ‘Haçienda Classical’ feature-length documentary, said to be broadcast on Channel 4 later this year, and finally on the second season of the Manchester set, comedy-drama ‘No Offence’ which is partially based over at The Space Project.

I’d like to thank the SharpFutures team for their hard work and for providing a steady stream of opportunities around my freelance work, for checking up on us and also ensuring that we’re busy and constantly progressing with our careers.